Use and Effectiveness of Contract Schedule Incentives in Air Force Materiel Command

摘要

Are contract schedule incentives utilized by our acquisition contracting workforce, and if so what are their effectiveness. This research shows there is not widespread use of these types of incentives. There is also disagreement on their perceived effectiveness. Surveying, via email, the population of contracting officers and buyers within Air Force Materiel Command yielded responses from every center and many large acquisition systems. Only 8.5% of responses showed that they use schedule incentives. These respondents claim that schedule incentives are somewhat effective, yet of the 91.5 % that have not used them, 2-to-l say they would not be effective. The population named a number of roadblocks as well as a number of documents providing guidance for their implementation. Common incentive and award-fees, though not by definition schedule incentives, were perceived to shorten schedule length. By analyzing the responses as a whole, there seems to be a general lack of understanding concerning the definition, use, and implementation.